College Capsules: Football media pick TCU to win Mountain West
HENDERSON, Nev. — TCU football coach Gary Patterson said Tuesday he was happy that college football media picked his Horned Frogs as the preseason favorite to win the 2009 Mountain West Conference.
But after going 7-1 in the conference and 11-2 overall only to lose the title to undefeated Utah last season, he said he told his players it’s not where they start, but where they finish.
"We’ll take it as a compliment that people voted for us," Patterson said during MWC football media days at the Green Valley Ranch resort casino in Henderson. "But it’s not what they say in August, it’s what they say in November."
The 24 media members contributing to the poll picked BYU second, with 190 points, and undefeated 2008 MWC champion Utah third, with 179.
Air Force, UNLV and Colorado State each drew more than 100 points in the survey, trailed by New Mexico, San Diego State and Wyoming.
Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham, who said he was disappointed his Utes didn’t get to play for a national championship last year, said he wasn’t surprised by the vote going into 2009.
"Every year is its own separate entity," he said. "If I had a vote I’d probably vote for TCU as well. They’ve got a lot of speed coming back, a lot of athleticism, and an excellent quarterback in Andy Dalton. It’s very easy to see why they were picked first."
The conference announced the Horned Frogs drew 15 first-place votes and 207 overall points on the strength of a season that sent them to a 17-16 San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl victor over Boise State.
Utah beat Alabama 31-17 in the Allstate Sugar Bowl in New Orleans.
Football media picked BYU senior quarterback Max Hall as their preseason pick to be Mountain West Conference offensive player of the year. Hall was a first-team all-MWC honoree as a junior in 2008, with a conference-leading 35 touchdowns and almost 4,000 yards passing.
Patterson’s team swept three other best-of categories, with senior defensive end Jerry Hughes projected as defensive player of the year, after a season that had him picked as a consensus All-American and MWC defensive player of the year in 2008.
TCU teammate Jeremy Kerley, a junior kick returner, was projected as special teams player of the year, and TCU running back Ed Wesley, tabbed as preseason freshman of the year. Wesley is from MacArthur High School in Irving, Texas.
TCU last won the league championship in 2005, and Patterson remembered watching BYU win in 2006 and 2007, and Utah win in 2008.
"We’ve been right up there with them," Patterson said of BYU and Utah. "But the thing about this conference is all the teams are very tough. You don’t have a game off, especially when you’re playing on the road."
"If we’re going to win the conference, we’re going to have to take it," he added.
BYU QB projected for MWC offensive player honor
HENDERSON, Nev. — Football media are picking BYU senior quarterback Max Hall as their preseason pick to be Mountain West Conference offensive player of the year.
Hall was a first-team all-MWC honoree as a junior in 2008, with a conference-leading 35 touchdowns and almost 4,000 yards passing.
TCU swept three other best-of categories, with senior defensive end Jerry Hughes projected Tuesday as defensive player of the year.
Hughes was a consensus All-American and MWC defensive player of the year in 2008.
TCU teammate Jeremy Kerley, a junior kick returner, is projected to be special teams player of the year, and TCU running back Ed Wesley is tabbed as preseason freshman of the year.
Wesley is from MacArthur High School in Irving, Texas.
Former NU football player could face more charges
OMAHA, Neb. — Prosecutors have asked a Douglas County district judge to allow them to charge former University of Nebraska running back Thunder Collins with more crimes in a homicide case.
Prosecutors filed a motion Tuesday to charge 29-year-old Collins with first-degree assault and using a weapon to commit the assault. Collins already faces first-degree murder, attempted second-degree murder and two related weapons charges. He has pleaded not guilty.
Authorities say Collins was involved in a dispute over a drug deal that sparked a Sept. 23 shooting in midtown Omaha and left a California man dead and another critically injured.
Four others have been charged in connection with the incident.
Collins played for the Cornhuskers from 2000 to 2002.
Sun Belt seeks flexibility from New Orleans Bowl
NEW ORLEANS — Sun Belt Conference commissioner Wright Waters says while the league expects to extend its relationship with the New Orleans Bowl, it would like the flexibility to send a team other than the conference champion to that game.
Since the New Orleans Bowl’s inception in 2001, it has hosted the Sun Belt champion.
The league’s current agreement with the bowl game runs out after this season. New Orleans Bowl chairman Paul Valteau says the bowl game has presented a contract to the Sun Belt to host the league champion though 2013.
In recent seasons, however, the Sun Belt has sent more than one team to a bowl game, and Waters says more flexibility to choose where the Sun Belt’s bowl eligible teams play could boost attendance.
Penn St. receiver kicked off team after DUI charge
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Penn State backup receiver James McDonald is off the football team after police charged him with drunken driving.
A one-sentence statement Tuesday from the athletic department said the fifth-year senior would not be invited back to the Nittany Lions this fall. The statement did not elaborate.
State College police on Monday filed two misdemeanor counts of driving under the influence against McDonald after he was pulled over July 9 for an expired registration.
The 22-year-old from Washington, D.C., also faces a violation of driving a car with an expired registration. A preliminary hearing was scheduled for Aug. 19.
McDonald has played sparingly at Penn State, finishing last season with five catches for 72 yards.
NDState linebacker suspended
FARGO, N.D. — North Dakota State backup linebacker Blake Sczepanski has been suspended indefinitely after his arrest over the weekend for allegedly driving under the influence.
Coach Craig Bohl says Sczepanski’s future with the team won’t be decided until after the legal process is finished.
Sczepanski is the fourth Bison player cited for DUI in the last six months. Two other players had drug arrests.
Court records show that Sczepanski also pleaded guilty to a minor in possession of alcohol charge last October. He was fined $175 and ordered to perform 16 hours of community service.
Basketball
Former UCLA basketball player sues NCAA
SAN FRANCISCO — A former UCLA basketball player is suing the NCAA over its use of former student athletes' images in DVDs, video games, photographs, apparel and other material.
In a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday, Ed O'Bannon says the NCAA illegally has athletes sign away their rights to the commercial use of their images and does not share any of the proceeds from their use with former athletes.
"While the NCAA, its member conferences and schools, and its for-profit business partners reap millions of dollars from revenue streams ..., former student athletes whose likenesses are utilized to generate those profit centers receive no compensation whatsoever," the suit claims.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages and calls on the NCAA to pay the former athletes what it has allegedly made from the use of their images. That amount has yet to be determined, said Megan Jones, a partner with the law firm of Hausfeld LLP, which is representing O'Bannon.
It also seeks an injunction on behalf of current student athletes barring the NCAA from licensing the rights to their images.
"There has been an awakening in the former student athletes," Jones said. "They are seeing their images and likenesses in more places now than ever before."
Bob Williams, a spokesman for the NCAA, declined to comment on the suit, saying the NCAA had yet to review it.
"However, the NCAA categorically denies any infringement on former or current student athlete likeness rights," he said.
The lawsuit, which also names the NCAA's licensing representative, the Collegiate Licensing Company, seeks class action status on behalf of former NCAA Division I basketball and football players.
O'Bannon won the national championship with UCLA in 1995 and was named the tournament's most outstanding player. He went on to a short-lived career in the NBA.
A message left for a Collegiate Licensing Company spokeswoman late Tuesday was not immediately returned.
The filing of the lawsuit was first reported by Yahoo! Sports.
-- Sudhim Thanawala
